XXL
My wife is obsessive about my trying clothing on. She will not let me be so much as a tea shirt in her presence without going into the dressing room to make sure it fits. If the world is still drawn to the old question about the difference between men and women then this is it.
In light of a new system, all that may change, but probably not. You see, my wife isn't paranoid or anything. Women's sizes are meaningless; they correspond to nothing outside the universe of the store. Perhaps that's why our image rich culture has fixated on the wafe women--she after all is tiny no matter where she is, and thus need only pick clothes that are likewise diminutive in size, but the normal sized women cannot find a universal measurement on the label of her clothing that all but says, "yes, I will fit you."
For men, this is the opposite. If it says large, then it will fit just as well as all other large sized shirts. It isn't that our clothing sizes are not playing to our egos--no one, for instance, could fit into a medium and small is out of the question. We are all, at least, large men. But there the confusion stops. Large is large is large is large.
The women's clothing line, unfortunately, has managed to get under women's skin--into their dome, as it were--so that they are convinced that this is the only way things could be. The idea of a standardized sizing system is akin to some utopian society where everyone is able to fulfill their dreams and live in a perfect equality of happiness. It's that ridiculous.
For men, if the thing doesn't fit, the man behind the counter had better have a damn good explanation for making me come back down to the fucking mall. It is fear of getting physically assaulted that keeps men's clothing standardized. And besides, if I buy a large and it doesn't fit. I think of it as a cheap knock off from some third world country where they don't understand the size of well nourished men. Seriously. Men, out there, what would you think if you bought a shirt that was the same size of all your other shirts and it just didn't fit? Would you buy that brand of shirt again?
I don't know if any of this suggests a course of action for the women of the world out there. I don't expect to see brawls I guess, and you're all too aware that the mismanagement of size isn't because your garments are made in a Guatemalan sweat shop but designed as such in New York and Paris. Maybe instead this is a cautionary tale for men--if those clerks ever try to screw with the size of our clothing, yell until you're blue in the face.
In light of a new system, all that may change, but probably not. You see, my wife isn't paranoid or anything. Women's sizes are meaningless; they correspond to nothing outside the universe of the store. Perhaps that's why our image rich culture has fixated on the wafe women--she after all is tiny no matter where she is, and thus need only pick clothes that are likewise diminutive in size, but the normal sized women cannot find a universal measurement on the label of her clothing that all but says, "yes, I will fit you."
For men, this is the opposite. If it says large, then it will fit just as well as all other large sized shirts. It isn't that our clothing sizes are not playing to our egos--no one, for instance, could fit into a medium and small is out of the question. We are all, at least, large men. But there the confusion stops. Large is large is large is large.
The women's clothing line, unfortunately, has managed to get under women's skin--into their dome, as it were--so that they are convinced that this is the only way things could be. The idea of a standardized sizing system is akin to some utopian society where everyone is able to fulfill their dreams and live in a perfect equality of happiness. It's that ridiculous.
For men, if the thing doesn't fit, the man behind the counter had better have a damn good explanation for making me come back down to the fucking mall. It is fear of getting physically assaulted that keeps men's clothing standardized. And besides, if I buy a large and it doesn't fit. I think of it as a cheap knock off from some third world country where they don't understand the size of well nourished men. Seriously. Men, out there, what would you think if you bought a shirt that was the same size of all your other shirts and it just didn't fit? Would you buy that brand of shirt again?
I don't know if any of this suggests a course of action for the women of the world out there. I don't expect to see brawls I guess, and you're all too aware that the mismanagement of size isn't because your garments are made in a Guatemalan sweat shop but designed as such in New York and Paris. Maybe instead this is a cautionary tale for men--if those clerks ever try to screw with the size of our clothing, yell until you're blue in the face.
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
10:09 AM
1 Comments:
There is one caveat to the overall rule: shoes. Here is where one company's 10 1/2 will fit ones foot completely well even if you "normally" wear a 9. Or an 11. Even a 12. So you end up trying on all the sizes around what is your usual size.
ALSO, you have to check out the shoes because there is even variation between one pair of 10s and another pair of 10s of the exact same style and color. I've found pairs where one shoe was tighter than the other. I've gone so far as to ask to see all of a store's 10 1/2 in a particular style and color and then mixed and matched to get the right fit.
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